Elder Langlois' mission blog. Serving in the Milan, Italy mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Monday, December 16, 2013

It's Almost Christmas! December 11, 2013

Ciao tutti! Buon natale!!! (quasi)

First
of all, I'm so pumped for Christmas. The lights and trees are all up in
centro, so every time we're there, I get super excited. Yesterday we had
our Christmas conference, so that really got me excited. This is such a
beautiful time of the year and a great time to talk to people about
Christ. The people are generally more open to talk during this time of
the year. However, the cold does not help that much. Speaking of the
cold, we no longer have wind here, we have ridiculous amounts of fog.
Like you can't even see 10 feet in front of you thick. It's super fun to
ride our bikes through. And don't worry mom, we have lights on our
bikes. As for using my card, yes, I've been using it for Christmas
presents. I'm almost done getting them for everyone, so I will probably
send it this week, so it should be there by Christmas. I don't know how
expensive it will be, but if its ridiculous, then I will try to figure
something else out. Yes, Sean and Sylvia will be here and we're planning
to meet up on p-day, so we will have the most time. I'm really excited
to see them. And speaking of being really excited, I hit my 6 month mark
tomorrow, that is NUTS!!!! But that also means that I get to Skype with
you in about 2 weeks or so. So I don't know where we will be yet, but I
will know per forza by next week. So I need you to send me your Skype
information and when I know mine, I will give it to you.

Dad,
thanks for the sports report. It should be an interesting world cup.
Let's hope we can hold our own and get out of the group stage this time.
As for Italy, of course I will be cheering for them, because I'm here,
but if the US plays Italy for any reason, I'm all USA raga. I'm excited
to hear about the bowl games as they happen. Even though we are in a
small bowl, let's hope we can win it. Last year was a good game, and I
hope we can do something like that again.

OK,
on to spiritual matters, and then some other random things. So we have
this less active from Honduras that we've been teaching, and she is
basically only less active because the lady she works for, wont let her
come to church. So we see her every week and try and boost her spirits.
We taught her this past week, and to be honest, I had no clue what we
were going to teach, so during studies that morning, I said a prayer
specifically to know what we should teach her. I then opened my little
plates (study journal) and immediately found what to teach her. When we
taught her that night, it was confirmed to me again that was exactly
what she needed. God really does answer our prayers. And then yesterday,
we taught this couple like we normally do on Tuesday
nights. They were super busy at their store when we showed up, so we
started a little bit late. Because of the time constraints, we decided
to share a spiritual thought instead of the lesson we planned. Anziano
Andersen shared a scripture and bore testimony about it, then I added my
thoughts and then we got into a really good discussion about "bearing
your cross and following Jesus Christ". At the end of the lesson, they
thanked us like normal, but during Michiela's prayer, she thanked
Heavenly Father for sending us with that message, because she had a
question during the week and we answered it, without even knowing it.
She then thanked Him for listening and we saw a real change in Michiela.
It really was a miracle and such a testimony builder to show that God
really does answer prayers. I know for a fact, that Heavenly Father
listens to our prayers and he answers them. It is sometimes through
others and sometimes through our own thoughts and studies, but he always
answers. Never be afraid to ask him for guidance or help. I have prayed
more this transfer, than ever before in my life, and I have seen so
many answers and help from our Father in heaven.

Then,
this past week we met with one of our regular investigators, and we've
really been trying to help him come to church and one night, we were
late to our appointment with him, so we raced there on our bikes and
when we got there, he asked us what time we could meet the next morning
for church. We told him and then we prayed really hard that night that
he would come. The morning came, and it was bitter cold and super foggy,
so it wasn't looking good, but then he gave me a call and asked if it
was OK that he came then. I almost jumped for joy. He then came despite
the cold and fog and had a great time at church. I was so happy, and
then I got called on by the Branch presidency to bear my testimony in
sacrament, so I really prayed hard that I would know what to say, and I
don't remember what I said, but it must have been good, because I had a
lot of people come tell me how great and powerful it was. I know for a
fact that was nothing of my doing, but the spirit's. Without the
spirit, we can do nothing, but with the spirit, we can do anything. We
can "speak with the tongues of angels" like 2 Nephi 32 says. I have seen
this so many times here on my mission, and I'm so grateful for the gift
of the Holy ghost.

OK,
some other crazy news. So at the Christmas conference yesterday I got
to see Anz Salmon again, because he's in La Spezia now, which is now in
our zone. So that was super awesome to see him again. He hasn't changed
one bit. He is so funny. Anyway, so while we were together in Genova, we
found this miracle investigator that we taught and gave a blessing to,
and it was just great. So she went back to Austria, and according to Anz
Salmon, she supposedly got baptised on the 7th! I happened to write her
last week, but I haven't heard a response yet, so I'm not positive that
it went through, but I'm pretty sure it did. I will let you know. It
seems to always happen, but even though I didn't get to see the fruits
of my labors, I'm still super super happy for her and excited. I can't
believe it. Crazy stuff.

OK,
now for some random notizie. So first of all, streets here in Italy
don't make any sense. Like zero whatsoever. We went out to this paesino
the other day and found 2 streets that were just ridiculous, of course
they happened to be the streets of the referrals we were looking for.
haha. It was super crazy and made no sense, but we somehow found both of
the houses. Only with the Lord's help. Any who, then since Anz Andersen
has been here, we have bought about 4 new tires for him. I don't know
how he keeps popping all of them, but as soon as we replace one, the
next day it pops. It is so frustrating and takes a lot of time to walk
to the store to buy a new one, and then walk back and fix it. Basically,
bikes are annoying, but also super fun at the same time. Oh well, I'm
used to bike problems now. And continuing on with Anziano Andersen, so
we ran to catch a train yesterday morning to get to the conference and
we all hopped on (or at least that's what we thought). The doors then
closed and we see Anz Andersen still standing outside....and then the
train started pulling away. So we yelled at him to get on a train to
Firenze. We had both phones so he couldn't call us and since there are a
ton of stops in Firenze, we got off at the one we needed to get off at,
and every time a train passed by, we run up and down it looking inside
the train for him. We probably checked about 10 trains, and in the
process I found the Siena sorelle (who were very nice and helped us
check trains) and the Pisa/Livorno Anziani. After checking a ton of
trains Anz Andersen saw Anz Windley running past the train and jumped
off. Meno male. That was a fun call I had to make to President. He was
actually super cool about it and was joking around about it at the
conference with us. Presdient Dibb is really awesome. I love him so
much, and he really is inspired.

Any who,
that was my week in a chestnut shell (there are a ton of them here and
they are super good). I absolutely love it here and I can't imagine
myself anywhere else then here in Prato serving the Lord. I'm so
grateful for this opportunity, and for this time of year. I wish you all
a happy 12 days of Christmas and I look forward to hearing from you all
next week.

Vi voglio bene,

Anziano Langlois

PS.
Holy cow, my computer just stopped working and I thought I lost this
whole email. Meno male gmail saves drafts automatically.